Weekly round up of social media for ChefHermes.com

Ar week rolls by and another picture goes viral on social media. Some proclaim that it’ll break the internet with so many of us talking about it, only those that are that stupid, believe such a thing could ever happen.

So, onward to the first topic.

Social media faux pas of the week award

Yes, this week the award goes to yet another American company in the UK. This company really doesn’t understand to power that fans of football teams have in the UK, and how passionate fans, in particular Liverpool ones, are about their club. Such is the way with football these days, that it’s a multi-million pound business. LFC has in excess of nineteen corporate partners, of which one is Dunkin donuts.

Dunkin Donuts decided mid week to reveal their version of the LFC crest with their own version.

SMFPA – Dunkin Donuts

It wasn’t the replacing of the clubs famous motto of ‘ You’ll never walk alone’ from the Shankly gates which upset reds fans, but the insensitivity to replace the eternal flames, which were introduced to the crest in 1993, as remembrance to those that died at Hillsboro, with iced coffee cups.

Dunkin donuts have since apologised to LFC fans, stating:

As a proud partner of LFC, we did not intend any offence, particularly to the club’s supporters. We have removed the tweet and halted the campaign immediately.

Cakegate

Yes, cos everything that now appears to be a scandal has to have the word ‘gate’ as a suffix, if you’re under 35 or don’t know, just google it.

Any way, this week saw the BBC reporting on cakeage or cakegate. Yes you read that right, not corkage but cakeage. The practice of guests bringing their own cake to an eatery, generally to finish off a meal which has been some sort of celebration, but being charged for the pleasure of it.

The BBC told the story of Peter Harden & his wife, yes, the co-founder of the guides, who according to their Twitter bio are:

Definitive views on restaurants in London and across the UK.

Hard to know how you can be definitive on something that is subjective, but hey ho 😉

The article drones on for 435words, effectively trying to deny restaurateurs the right to make a living & contribute to the economy. I did actually come out in support of Peter Harden, tweeting:

Not often I agree with @HardensBites, but £4 for bowl of sprouts is excessive, even with nutmeg 😉 #cakegate

Masterchef pop up doesn’t add up

This week it was announced that a Masterchef pop up restaurant, featuring finalists & winners of the BBC competition had left its main supporter nearly £400k out of pocket. Surely the whole point of a pop up is to do a temporary restaurant, make a bit of cash as you’ll be fully booked because of the ‘new toy’ factor? Or maybe the shine has gone from the show?

A chef’s version of ‘Celebrities read mean tweets’

If you haven’t seen this feature on the Jimmy Kimmel show in the US, I urge you to have a look at it on YouTube. I personally find it hilarious, and quite frankly a stroke of genius.

Now Eater.com have done their own take on it, They got 3Michelin star chef Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin, New York, to read an average Yelp review.

Here are the results

Jailing tax avoiders

This week Emma Thompson’s husband, Greig Wise, has made some bold statement about not paying tax, stating:

I want to stop paying tax, until everyone pays tax

and

I have actively loved paying tax, because I am a profound fucking socialist and I believe we are all in it together. But I am disgusted with HMRC. I am disgusted with HSBC. And I’m not paying a penny more until those evil bastards go to prison.

So here’s the thing, will he and his luvvie mates avoid Caprice Holdings restaurants? Their principle owner, Richard Caring was one of those fingered in the BBC Panarama programme about the leaked HSBC files & secret Swiss bank accounts. Interesting, only time will tell.